Aronia-almond cookies

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 210 g butter, soft
• 150 g corn flour, finely ground
• 100 g spelt flour type 630, light
• 100 g almonds, ground, peeled
• 1 lemon(s), zest
• 70 g sugar
• 1 tbsp powder (aronia powder)
• 2 tbsp xylitol (sugar substitute) or fine sugar for rolling
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar for the glaze, optional
• 1 tbsp lemon juice for the glaze, optional

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

with corn flour and spelt flour, for approx. 60 pieces

The dough is originally based on croissant dough. The cookies are slightly crumbly and melt in your mouth, like real vanilla croissants. Roast the almonds in a pan and let them cool. Preheat the oven to 170–180°C (top/bottom heat) or approximately 160°C (fan oven). Mix the butter with the sugar until creamy. Mix the flour with the aronia powder and stir into the butter mixture. I only used 1 tablespoon of aronia powder, but you can certainly use up to 50g, depending on your preference or taste, without affecting the consistency of the dough. Add the almonds and grated lemon zest and knead everything until you have a homogeneous dough that easily separates from the bottom of the bowl. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or a little longer if possible. Form the cold dough into an oblong, round sausage about 3 cm in diameter and use a knife to cut into slices about 0.5 cm thick. You can also make a sheet of dough about 3-4 cm thick and cut it into logs, then cut into 0.5 cm wide squares, as desired. Place the pieces on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake in the oven for about 15-25 minutes, depending on how well the oven is doing and how browned you want them to be—mine takes a little longer. Once removed from the oven, let the finished cookies sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before handling them, otherwise they will crumble easily and will, of course, still be too hot. If you want to roll the cookies in birch sugar (xylitol) or caster sugar, they should still be warm. Otherwise, you can decorate them as desired—you can even use icing, if you like. The square ones in the picture are rolled in birch sugar, my personal favorite, while the others are decorated or rolled with icing or regular caster sugar. You can also roll them the classic way, like vanilla crescents, in a mixture of caster sugar and vanilla sugar, but I never use vanilla sugar because of the additives, unless you make it yourself with real vanilla. The dark color of the cookies comes from the aronia powder. You can also mix in other powders instead of aronia powder, for example, any powdered, freeze-dried fruit like strawberries, raspberries, or blackcurrant. Hemp powder, pea powder, or algae powder might also work—you can certainly experiment a bit. This amount makes about 60 cookies.